Abstract

This paper analyzes the fit between the concepts of a truly global strategy in strategic lea-dership put forward by Yip in his book “Total Global Strategy” and the consumable busi-ness sector with a focus on the beverage industry. Yip puts forward that simply operating globally does not mean a company possesses a global strategy. Yip argued that “the global company does not have to be everywhere but has the capability to go everywhere, deploy any assets and access any resources and maximizes profit on a global basis”. This concept, is what in the author’s opinion, YIP calls a truly Global Strategy. This paper postulates that there is a weak fit between Yip’s Global strategy and the beverage industry. The paper uses a reflective methodology to examine the Coca-Cola global strategy model and com-pares it with a few selected business cases to ascertain the strength of Yip’s model. By re-flecting on the past experiences of the selected cases the author hopes to draw an inductive conclusion. Analysis of the selected business cases suggest a weak fit between the Yip model of a truly Global strategy and strategy levers leveraged by successful companies like Coca-Cola in the beverage industry for effective implementation of a global strategy. The paper concludes that in the beverage industry, a multi-local driven strategy may prevail over a truly global strategy depending on the globalization potential of the industry based on the industry globalization drivers, organizational factors and the Global strategy levers of the organization which should determine the extent of focus of the strateg.